Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation starts off on another level. Literally. In the first scene of the film, Tom Cruise runs from the ground and flies through the sky on the side of an airplane. It’s the film’s way of screaming at the audience, “You are in for a fucking crazy ride.” And then, it delivers. »7/31/15 12:12pm Friday 12:12pm

Marvel’s latest superhero movie, Ant-Man, is very well made. It has some good action and a few really clever bits. There are some funny parts, along with some not-that-funny parts. This movie pretty much gets the job done. But it’s not particularly memorable, or especially amazing. »7/17/15 12:10pm 7/17/15 12:10pm

Arnold Schwarzenegger is once again playing a machine cloaked in human skin in Terminator Genisys, but now he’s the most human thing in a plastic movie. Arnie’s trademark grimace looks rough around the edges, like a slab of petrified wood after years of erosion. In a movie that’s basically shitty comfort food, the… »7/01/15 1:08pm 7/01/15 1:08pm

Sometimes, you see a haunting short film that just cries out to become a full-length movie. Case in point: Advantageous, a short film by Jennifer Phang released in 2013. She’s expanded it to full length, and the added time and budget have turned a beautiful short into an eerily intense feature. »6/30/15 1:00am 6/30/15 1:00am

Despite an island’s worth of good intentions, Jurassic World is an uneven movie in a lot of ways. The human characters basically don’t work, the movie wallows in nostalgia, and the story is murky. But where it counts — beautiful dinosaur action! — this movie delivers enough to make us remember why we love these beasts. »6/12/15 1:21pm 6/12/15 1:21pm

Sense8, the mysterious new show from the Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski, goes up tomorrow on Netflix. We’ve seen the first three episodes... and we’re still not sure what the show is about. No real spoilers here, because we would have to understand what’s going on to spoil anything. »6/05/15 6:40pm 6/05/15 6:40pm

San Andreas is filled with ludicrous, special effects-laden chaos, and it paints its main character’s quest to reunite his family — an all-too-familiar disaster-movie trope — with the broadest possible strokes. But if you can put up with ridiculous science (and cheese), it’s a fun, silly summer movie. »5/29/15 11:20am 5/29/15 11:20am

Lots of movies have a wonderful first half, followed by a blah second half. Setup is often easier than follow-through. But Tomorrowland, out today, might become the clearest example of this syndrome. And the reason Tomorrowland falls apart halfway through is because it sinks into Baby Boomer angst. Spoilers ahead...»5/22/15 12:07pm 5/22/15 12:07pm

Good Kill is the latest high tech parable from director Andrew Niccol, best known for scifi flicks GATTACA and In Time. Set in 201o, it deals with “actual events” in the lives of drone pilots flying assassination missions over Afghanistan. The movie is uneven, but it will give you a look at drone warfare that’s unlike… »5/15/15 3:30pm 5/15/15 3:30pm

You don’t realize just how crappy most action movies are, until you see something like Mad Max: Fury Road — a movie in which there are no “action scenes” because the action pretty much never stops. And the film’s constant sense of violent motion is in the service of incredible imagery and transcendant moments. »5/15/15 11:08am 5/15/15 11:08am

Ex Machina is one of the smartest, most thought-provoking science fiction movies in ages. And that probably conjures images of a slow, introspective Sundance-y film — but actually, Ex Machina moves at a ruthless pace, and kicks your ass up one all and down the other. Minor spoilers ahead... »4/10/15 3:39pm 4/10/15 3:39pm

We wanted Chappie to be a good movie. We desperately wanted to get back on the Neill Blomkamp train. But sadly, Chappie gets lost in the very questions it marvels at itself for asking, with violence that's so over-the-top it would be laughable... if it wasn't so absurdly grotesque. However Chappie, the robot itself,…»3/06/15 5:04pm 3/06/15 5:04pm

Jupiter Ascending isn't just a mediocre film. It's also self-indulgent, and in love with its own excesses. It's like the sick love-child of Zardoz and Fifth Element. But what's really odd about Jupiter is that it wants to criticize opulence and selfishness, and yet it's a movie that thinks "more" is always "better." »2/06/15 1:16pm 2/06/15 1:16pm

The time-travel thriller Predestination, is already gaining a cult status, and it's easy to see why. This movie takes the most famous story about time paradoxes and elevates it to a great psychological study. And it features one of the most powerful performances we've seen in ages. »1/09/15 3:13pm 1/09/15 3:13pm

The Robocop remake, out in theaters today, is a pitch-perfect, badass update of a movie that is practically legendary. As if that weren't surprising enough, it also manages to revive that lost art of the 80s: the smart B-movie that stumbles a bit but still goes where blockbusters fear to tread. »2/12/14 3:59pm 2/12/14 3:59pm

Galaxy Quest is a brilliant spoof of Star Trek. It's also one of the two or three best Star Trek movies. That's how I feel about The Lego Movie, which is both a perfect satire of noisy toy-driven summer action movies, and also an absolutely perfect summer movie in its own right. A few months early. »2/07/14 4:00pm 2/07/14 4:00pm

Super 8 is one of the only original science fiction movies this summer, and it's the brainchild of "sense of wonder" twins Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams. So yeah, there's been a lot of hype about this flick. And no, it's not entirely deserved. But that doesn't mean it isn't a likable, exciting movie. »6/11/11 2:02pm 6/11/11 2:02pm

In the new movie Moon, we get all of our energy from mining on the moon and we have sentient robot helpers. And, surprise surprise, all that fancy tech creates some pretty serious problems. »6/12/09 3:40pm 6/12/09 3:40pm